Guest Post: Afghanistan - Newly Discovered Mineralogical Treasure House (Again)
From John C.K. Daly of OilPrice.com
Guest Post: Afghanistan - Newly Discovered Mineralogical Treasure House (Again)
As the U.S.-led Afghan campaign lurches into its second decade, the country’s vast untapped mineralogical resources are again emerging in the Western media, seemingly underpinning the benefits of International Security Assistance Force troops “staying the course” and defeating the insurgency, after which these resources can be tapped, both providing the administration of Afghan President Hamid Karzai with a source beyond drugs for reconstruction and Western companies who develop the reserves a handsome profit.
The latest discovery is that Afghanistan is rich in rare earth elements (RREs). China currently has a near monopoly on the global production of RREs, and the price for a ton of unprocessed ore has soared to a dizzying $100,000 a ton.
So, what’s wrong with this picture?
Western venture capitalists should consider the following points before whipping out their checkbooks to underwrite any mining projects.
First and most obvious, Afghanistan has been in a civil war for thirty years, with Western forces intervening only in the last decade. The country is torn by tribalism and religious divides and Karzai's administrative control is largely limited to the larger cities. Mao Tse Tung in his 1947 work "The Present Situation and Our Tasks" wrote, “Concerning attacking cities, resolutely seize all enemy fortified points and cities that are weakly defended. At opportune moments, seize all enemy fortified points and cities defended with moderate strength, provided circumstances permit. As for all strongly defended enemy fortified points and cities, wait until conditions are ripe and then take them,” a strategy the Taliban are apparently following to the letter, unconcerned with election cycles and opinion polls. The Taliban know that they have time on their side – as one Taliban commander told a U.S. military officer, “you have the watches, we have the time.”
Secondly, the administration of Karzai is increasingly viewed by the Afghan population as illegitimate, foisted on them by foreign forces, and extremely corrupt to boot. During the August 2009 presidential election, Karzai, in an election reported by foreign observers as riven with fraud, received less than 50 percent of the popular vote, triggering a runoff. Two months later, after Karzai agreed to a runoff election, tentatively scheduled for 7 November, but five days later his main opponent Abdullah Abdullah withdrew and Afghan officials canceled the election, leaving Karzai in power for a second term, despite the provisions of the Afghan constitution, alienating many Afghans from democratic principles.
Third, Afghanistan’s rich mineral base has been known for a long time. Following disastrous December 1979 Soviet invasion, extensive Soviet exploration in Afghanistan produced detailed geological maps and reports that listed more than 1,400 mineral outcroppings, along with about 70 commercially viable deposits. The USSR subsequently committed more than $650 million for resource exploration and development in Afghanistan, which included a smelting complex for the Ainak deposit that was to have produced 1.5 million tons of copper per year. In the wake of the Soviet withdrawal a subsequent World Bank analysis projected that the Ainak copper production alone could eventually capture as much as 2 percent of the annual world market. Afghanistan’s Hajigak iron deposit, in the Hindu Kush mountain range west of Kabul, is assessed as one of the largest high-grade deposits in the world.
As for the recent announcement about gigantic deposits of rare-earth metals, including lanthanum, cerium and neodymium, being discovered in Afghanistan, it is worth bearing in mind that the U.S. geologists who surveyed the sites were airlifted by Black Hawk helicopters to the Khan Neshin Village in a desert area of Helmand Province, where they worked under military protection. If such deposits are to be developed, then given the lack of security forcing geologists to be airlifted to the site, then how is the mining infrastructure to be conveyed?
Fourthly, the stupendous rise in RRE ore prices has led to a frenzied search for deposits around the world, from Estonia to Mongolia, some of which will doubtless pan out. Given Afghanistan’s instability, why would an investor risk his capital there, especially when neighboring Central Asian nations like Mongolia represent a far more stable and investor-friendly environment? Mongolia recently signed off on a massive $7 billion mining project, allowing Rio Tinto and Ivanhoe Mines a majority 67 percent share.
While Afghanistan’s mineralogical potential is vast, the country’s crippling economic and insurgency problems remain, and it’s worth nothing here that despite the 2010 joint report by the Pentagon, the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Agency for International Development that Afghanistan possesses "previously unknown" and untapped mineral reserves worth up to $1 trillion, two-thirds of Afghanistan’s population live on less than $2 a day.
So, even though Afghan Ministry of Mines adviser Jalil Jumriany said of the RRE discoveries, “This will become the backbone of the Afghan economy,” the question, not only for foreign investors but the Afghans themselves remains, “qui bono?”
There are no clear answers emerging to this question from Kabul anytime soon.
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“This will become the backbone of the Afghan economy,”
heroin, qui?
Many countries are "rich" in rare earth elements, because they are not really that rare. No surprise that Afghanistan is one of them.
What Afghanistan is really "rich" in is lack of environmental protections, resulting in the mining of the REEs to be super-profitable!
Stealing is the most lucrative business.
Possibly, though do that only if you think you wouldn't get caught or else.
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Heroin is, and will be, the backbone of Afghan economy.
Call China to come and get it...
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Qui bono?
China is already developing Afghan mines.
China has good economic relations with Afghanistan, and is conveniently located next door.
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So we've been dropping all those bombs to loosen up the soil for mining?
Brilliant strategy! Now, if we can only get those pesky Afghans out of our fucking way.......
Time to free the shit out of them!
No.., we are loosening the soil to make it easier for China to mine it....
only one resource that counts there: opium.
These lunatic, conspiracist attempts to make our Wars in the Middle East theater look like oil/minerals grabs are an insult to the sacrifice of thousands of young Americans, who dedicated their life to the preservation of freedom and equality around the world.
Give me a break. Who would be cynic enough to send thousands of people to their death and injuries for oil, and then say it was for liberty? Some men are evil, it's true, but I can't see anybody in our current government who would be able to do such things.
please tell me this is really good sarcasm?
No, it wasn't. I'm just sad and fed up to see a serious blog like Zerohedge joining the ranks of Rense.com and Iamthewitness.
No war in the world has ever been fought because of the military/industrial complex, but because of the beautiful, everlasting thirst for liberty of mankind. Nutjobs, crackers, goldbugs and hillbillies need to understand that.
alright. you almost had me. Definitely sarcasm. kudos. you're even more convincing than colbert.
his name is your first clue
Hamy Wanger is Tyler Durden - he writes these things to simply stir the pot and get a reaction.
Watch how fast Tyler responds!
Wow, Hamy. I'm impressed. Only now does the true nature of your plan become clear. Lay low for a few months, and let a whole new school of n00b sharks gather. Then throw out some chum and watch the show. Well done!
So you see no problem with the concept of forcing freedom on someone? If you are making someone act in a particular way, it ain't freedom numbnuts.
pods
Hamy, you are deeply hypnotized.
Hamy "Just look at the dirty little hole I popped out of" Wanger.
Well, only someone charged with battling the "truth" movement would even know about DBS.. You just showed your hand Hamy... You didn't just stumble across that website.. Don't try to take us for fools..
Boy are you misinformed!
All wars are fought for resources. None are fought to free the proletariat, although they may be convinced that that is the case since they must become the cannon fodder.
"Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." -- Hermann Goering
Boy are you misinformed!
Hee hee.
Goddamn you're inspring, Hamy. You make me want to go vote!
Lookup the word psychopath and for followup, what professions the tend to choose.
Elizebeth Warren, is that you? (a flag for an avatar and rah-rah like this?? this ain't no MSNBC blog!)
I like the fact that you see good in people, but I think this is a bit naive. Those in Congress would whore out their mother and sister if it meant re-election. Think of the worst person you know not in prison and realize that person is ten fold more ethical than most in Congress. Recent elections have made some adjustments, but not enough to be significantly consequential.
Look at it this way. Our executive branch and Depratment of JUSTICE gave GUNS to f***ing foreign criminals with the INTENT to remove our gun rights. it has led to the deaths of hundreds of innocents. This wasn't some accident. it was an intentionally designed planned effort. Never under estimate the potential evil of gov't officials.
I hope you're joking. If not...put some vicks vapo-rub on your berries. Open the freezer door. Now insert your nuts in the freezer. Wait 20 minutes. Slap yourself in the face. Walk over to a mirror. And say,"I believe the propaganda that the mainstream media has served me all these years. I am a moron for doing so." Now go to your computer and say you are sorry to the great people of zero Hedge.
Thank You.
Hamy is the Phil Hendrie of ZH.
That brings a fucking tear to my eye.....<standing golf clap>
Fucking brilliant.....really....
My only advice for everyone this weekend.
Eat ass....Talk shit.
Cheers Bitchez!
Hamy
Idiot! Go read Perkins "confessions of an economic hitman" and do a few freedom of information requests to uncle Sam.
haha what are the exploration costs going to be? can I go stake a mining claim and work the property? will I get shot at? is the infrastrucure there to accomodate mining? How many smelting facilites are there? etc etc what a laff what a joke this is. trying to paint a picture of Afghanistan can one day become a minreal resource powerhouse is laughable. The only commodity that the US govt is concerned about in afghanistan is the opium trade to help fund their BS CIA covert NWO activites thats it....in fact after the Americans came in the opium trade has never been more robust....Plenty of gold in Colombia but few go in there to mine it because it is so fucked up...
also not sure how this latest "revelation" changes the fact that no empire has ever successfully taken down this country. Not enough overlords, too much terrain
The #1 export of Afghanistan has and will always be opium. Even their fine hsahish runs a distant second.
another shitbag country about to get rich because they have one or more natural resources un their ground???? Tell me again how america has any debt at all with the 200,000,134,143 resources we have here? Oh yes, thats right, the fed, politics, etc.
goodbye
US should just legalize drugs, that will be the backbone that gets Afghanistan on its feet
the customs agents at the border would lose the majority of their income 'bribes' if drugs were legalized, not to mention cutting into the CIA's funding
Best solution for the world problems.
chinese won't have a problem mining there. when the afghans make trouble, they just drop a plane on them.
or take them on one of their new luxury ships.
not to mention all the depleted uranium we can recover from our bombs
An excellent opportunity for the Chinese to add to their rare earth monopoly!
more press releases. how quaint.
Yeah, we should let the mooslims develop their resources by themselves. Should have mines working in about 150 years....
So while we are talking commodities has anyone else noticed the insane spike in the volume of commodity contracts traded. Look at Corn, Wheat, Rice, etc.
Up until March of 2011 daily volume was almost always under 1000 contracts traded. Many times much lower. Recently the volume has spiked higher than 25k contracts per day. The has been a massive increase in speculation and it corresponds to massive price increases.
Algos have definitely taken over the commodity trading space. This has to stop. Are the guards ever going to try and stop this prison riot before we are all killed?
Actually I read an article baout this this week. Someone in Congress has taken notice. I guess that means they'll demand a kick back in order to allow the speculation to continuie with Congressional approval.
Wheat contracts have spiked to over 75k contracts this past month with the high prior to 2011 around 5000.
Corn now trades with an average over 100k contracts a day. Old averages were in the low thousands.
The foxes are guarding the hen house.
manifest destiny comes to Afghanistan...for some the new Cheyenne nation.
I imagine we'll let them sell their heroine/opium unmolested as a trade for taking their rare eath elements.
Well, aren't US troop there to catch Osama ? And why they are spending time investigating how much natural resource Afghan has ?
During the 80's, Russian had arlready published the report on Trillion dollar worth of minerals in Afghan. And now it is our turn to harvest the natural wealthy "on behalf of" the afghan ?
More I look at it, more I believe the 911 conspiracies. We have taken two countries Afghan and Iraq all because of the 911. One for the minerals and another for the oil.
And then we had just manufacture another incident, the assasination of Saudi diplomate. Iran, here we come.
What bozo wrote this crap? $100,000/t for unprocessed ore? 1,500,000 t of copper per year?
It would make more sense if Rare Earth Elements were abbreviated REE rather than RRE. But then again, why should that make sense when nothing else does...
any excuse for the military industrail complex to stay, plus now another muslim country with mineral wealth to exploit. fuck the script is always the same.
Wall Street is War Street - that's the new slogan. From the mouth of babes .... and protestors
The tragedy of Empires, reaching farther and farther outside of their borders to acquire the resources necessary to sustain their obese citizens. It requires ever increasing Military to protect their resources from the indigenous population and inevitably bankrupts the Empire. Neo-cons call it 'protecting our strategic interest'.
Welcome to the decaying Empire of the United States.
better to be a fat hog than bacon.
Bacon comes from fat hogs. That, and some other delicious cuts, are all fat hogs are good for. Very few fat hogs die of old age.
Good post.......we have 400 Military bases in afghanistan mostly protecting TAPI(pipeline)..........I dont recall any afghani's on the 9/11 planes that "attacked" the US........oh well........gotta recycle those petro dollars........
Empires don't care two shits about their citizens. Is Obama a neo-con as I seem to remember him expanding our wars!? The right left paradigm is a false one that should not be fallen for. Different puppets on the same stage, but that said, yes, our empire is decaying.
IMO you will find that any place that has been over run and occupied by western powers (since about 1850) either is "mineral rich" or a strategic geographic location which controls access to those "mineral riches". But this is not restricted to "western" powers as China so adequately demonstrates by its choke hold over Mongolia. Face it, if you have something someone else wants then they will find a way to get it from you, whether by "predatory loans" or military force. The boys'n'girls at the top do not play fair and square, they just arrange the pcs on their game boards. BTW - You are the pcs.
Cool, since our soldiers are now planting, growing, harvesting, transporting Opium for the Afghan economy. Might as well put our soldiers to work on REE mining while were there.
http://homedailynews.com/farmers-in-afghanistan-are-taught-by-us-soldier...
Didn't I hear somewhere that our "rapid troop withdraw" from Afghanistan is now set for 2020?
The "rapid troop withdraw" has been pushed to the year 2200. However, that may be overly optimistic and may need to be pushed further out to reflect the current realities.
Exactly right. This is a little head fake the demons throw out on occasion for the ignorant establishment media watchers. Poppy seed production up 90% since we invaded in 2001 good for a cool $500,000,000,000.00 per year. We had 40,000 troops massed on Afghan border on 9/10/01. Just coincidental:)
Silly, this resource news, has been known since at least the 50's . Hell they figured out how to make Gold from sea water in the 50's.. atomic fusion. So tell me, what does any of this great discovery that War is supposedly being fought over have to do the real world of ........ backwards, stupid people!
Can we just admit that all we are doing is looting other nations and just stop this ridiculous pretense of "spreading democracy".
Can we just admit that all we are doing is looting other nations and just stop this ridiculous pretense of "spreading democracy".
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US citizens are duplicitous by nature and their nature is eternal.
It would require that US citizens relinquish their nature which would mean that their nature is not eternal.
So no, US citizens will never admit that they are looting other nations, at least as long as stuff remains to be looted.
Once it is over, yep, you might see US citizens recognize they looted. No longer useful to deny.
It's an English thing. Americans are just tools of The Empire.
The sun never sets on the British Empire (unfortunately). Americans making the world free for The Family to keep stealing the planet's resources. It's a dirty job, but better that Yanks (and a few Aussies and Canucks) do it than an outnumbered British military (now that they don't have those unlimited cannon fodder resources in India and Africa to recruit from).
LOL. Most of the people who post on ZH are US citizens, and we're frequently condemning the looting.
BTW - How can anyone's nature be 'eternal' if they don't live forever?
Stability is relative and depends on the viewer PoV.
What is the US interested in? Stability in the flow of wealth extraction out of Iraq.
Many examples around the world under the US world order shows that it is possible to establish and maintain a steady outflow of wealth from countries that are sunk into turmoil.
Afghanistan might be raging with civil war while the flow of their wealth is shipped steadily and undisturbed out of their country.
No connection between the welfare of the local population and the possibility to extract wealth.
As to corruption in the Aghanistan government, well, the US should be concerned first, even before the locals as they are claiming everywhere they are installing democracy, republicanism and US citizenism.
America is like a drug addict, short of his dose, cannot make wise judgment.
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